The most recent data from LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index has revealed employee confidence may be returning once more, with respondents less likely to say their companies’ short-term outlook was negative than they were two weeks ago.

According to the data, Australian SMB employees who are also looking for work “are becoming increasingly optimistic that opportunities will improve”, with a 7 per cent increase in these employees thinking they will be better off in six months’ time.

LinkedIn Australia and New Zealand country manager Matt Tindale highlighted that the slight uptick in sentiment coincides with the effective control of the national coronavirus situation and a slowdown in new cases.

“There is growing optimism surrounding job security and the long-term outlook of employment in certain industry sectors,” he commented.

“SMB and mid-market employees, in particular, expect job opportunities to stop declining, suggesting the market may have started to ‘bottom out’ for them.”

Despite stronger sentiment, Mr Tindale has flagged one particular confidence discrepancy in the data: the impact of sector on an individual’s confidence.

“Less than 40 per cent of workers in the education, construction and manufacturing industries [are] feeling optimistic in terms of outlook for their companies,” he said.

The data revealed a whopping 49 per cent of employees in construction and 47 per cent of employees in education feel they will be worse off in six months’ time – the highest across all industries.

And while negative sentiment is still pervasive short-term, there’s far more optimism and positivity when looking at a two-year time horizon across all industries.

This is especially so for workers in finance, software and IT-related fields, where “64 per cent of those in finance and software and IT services are significantly more confident about their long-term future”, Mr Tindale commented.